Association News

Webinar Series addresses solar permitting and inspection.

Press Release Summary:

Jun 24, 2014 -
As part of U.S. Department of Energy's SunShot Solar Outreach Partnership, ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability U.S.A. and IREC present a series of 3 webinars on solar permitting and inspection. Series will review components of rooftop solar permitting processes, and share best practices and tools for improving them. On June 26th, second webinar of series will address inspection component of process, including inspection scheduling and timing, checklists, and inspector training.

Original Press Release

6/26 Solar Permitting and Inspection Webinar: It's All about Inspections!

Press release date: Jun 19, 2014

As part of the U.S. Department of Energy's SunShot Solar Outreach Partnership, ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability U.S.A. and IREC present a series of three webinars on solar permitting and inspection. The series will review the components of rooftop solar permitting processes, and share best practices and tools for improving them.

The second webinar of the series on June 26th will address the inspection component of the process, including inspection scheduling and timing, checklists and inspector training. REGISTER

These webinars will be targeted at municipal permit review staff and inspectors, but should be useful to a diverse audience, including other municipal staff, solar installers and others in the solar industry, and individuals and organizations interested in seeing changes to the permitting processes in their communities.

These webinars are free, but you must register to attend. All webinars will be held from 2:00p-3:00pm ET.

The final webinar of the series will be held on August 27th. In this webinar, we'll take a step back and examine how communities can change their permitting processes, with a particular focus on voluntary regional and statewide collaborations. REGISTER

PRESENTERS for the series are Sky Stanfield, Erica Schroeder McConnell and Don Hughes, well-known experts in the permitting and inspection space.

Sky StanfieldSky Stanfield is Of Counsel with the law firm of Keyes, Fox & Wiedman, LLP in Oakland, California. Ms. Stanfield's practice focuses on the intersection between renewable energy regulation and environmental and land use law, with a particular focus on regulatory policy implementation, compliance and permitting processes. On behalf of IREC, Ms. Stanfield works to improve the efficiency and efficacy of the permitting process for distributed generation solar systems. She also is a leading voice for the improvement of interconnection standards and their interaction with the procurement and land use permitting processes in California.

Erica Schroeder Erica Schroeder McConnell joined Keyes, Fox & Wiedman as an Associate in September 2010. Ms. McConnell is deeply involved in IREC's efforts to investigate and improve permitting processes for renewable energy systems, a critical component to supporting renewable energy development nationwide. In addition, Ms. McConnell represents IREC in state-level rulemakings on many topic areas essential to building sustainable markets for renewable energy including net metering rules, interconnection standards, and shared renewable energy, sometimes called community renewables.

Don Hughes, senior building inspector, Santa Clara County, is a leading expert regarding solar photovoltaic system permitting, inspecting and codes and standards. With 30 years combined experience as an electrician, electrical inspector and chief electrical inspector, Don has provided AHJ perspective to the leaders in the effort to facilitate wide scale adoption of solar PV including the United States Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, The California State Governor's Office of Planning and Research, IREC and Underwriter's Laboratories. Don serves on all UL PV standards technical panels and is an ICC Certified Inspector and IAEI/ IASET solar PV training provider.

About The Solar Outreach Partnership The Solar Outreach Partnership (SolarOPs) is designed to help accelerate solar energy adoption on the local level by providing timely and actionable information to local governments. Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) SunShot Initiative, SolarOPs achieves its goals through a mix of educational workshops, peer-to-peer sharing opportunities, research-based reports, and online resources. The International City/County Management Association (ICMA) and ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability USA coordinates the work of Solar Outreach Partnership teams, including The Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC), Meister Consultants Group, the North Carolina Solar Center (NCSC), the Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA), and The Solar Foundation (TSF).

About ICLEI USA ICLEI USA is a vibrant network of over 450 local government members across 47 states and the District of Columbia. We provide cutting-edge tools, resources and technical assistance in emissions management, climate adaptation, resource efficiency and renewable energy planning to local governments to support the most informed decisions around creating sustainable, healthy, prosperous and resilient communities. For more information, please visit icleiusa.org

About IREC IREC believes clean energy is critical to achieving a sustainable and economically strong future. To pave this clean energy path, IREC works to expand consumer access to clean energy; generates information and objective analysis grounded in best practices and standards; and leads programs to build a quality clean energy workforce, including a unique credentialing program for training programs and instructors. A not-for-profit organization since 1982, IREC's programs and policies have benefitted energy consumers, policymakers, utilities and the clean energy industry. As of July 2013, IREC is an accredited American National Standards Developer. For more information, visit http://www.irecusa.org

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